Idaho passed the two-year mark in the pandemic with more encouraging case numbers.

From March 5 through Friday, the state and its seven health districts reported 5,560 new coronavirus cases. That’s close to 1,000 new cases a day — but Idaho’s lowest daily rate since late December.

All told, Idaho has tallied 438,267 confirmed or probable coronavirus cases.

Other weekly metrics:

Case backlog: Gradually decreasing.

The state says it still has about 3,400 positive laboratory results from late January or early February, “pending local public health district review and followup.” A week ago, the backlog was 8,200.

Child cases: Sharply decreasing.

From March 5 through Friday, the state reported 565 new cases involving school-age children — slightly less than 100 cases per day. The previous week, the state tallied close to 200 child  cases per day.

Test positivity rate: It’s taken eight months, but this metric finally crossed an important threshold.

For the week ending March 5, the positivity rate fell to 3.7%.

The rate hasn’t been below 5% since July.

This is a key yardstick, because a rate below 5% suggests an outbreak is under control.

Hospitalizations: Mixed weekly trends, based on numbers from Wednesday.

Total COVID-19 hospitalizations: 136, down 35%.

ICU admissions: 30, up 17%.

Pediatric admissions: Four, unchanged from March 2.

Deaths: Another metric on the decrease.

The state reported 31 deaths from March 5 through Friday, down from 58 COVID-19 deaths from Feb. 26 through March 5.

Idaho’s COVID-19 death toll stands at 4,819.

Vaccination rate: 54.1%, for all Idahoans, ages 5 and up. (Last week, 54%.)

Booster shot rate: 44.4%, for all age groups. (Last week: 44.2%.)

K-12 thumbnails

Weekly case numbers from select school districts:

• Blaine County. Two student cases, down from a total of four.
• Boise. Ten positive cases, down from 16.
• Bonneville. No new data available.
• Coeur d’Alene. Two positive cases, down from three.
• Idaho Falls. No cases for the week ending March 4, down from one case the previous week.
• Kuna. No new data available.
• Moscow. No cases since Feb. 23.
• Nampa. Eight new cases, up from five.
• Pocatello-Chubbuck. Two cases, unchanged from the previous week.
• Twin Falls. No new data available.
• West Ada. One case in the five-day period ending Sunday, down from two the previous week.

Higher education thumbnails

Weekly campus case numbers:

• Boise State University. Ten cases, up from eight.
• Brigham Young University-Idaho. No active cases Sunday.
• College of Eastern Idaho. No current data available.
• College of Idaho. No new cases for the past two weeks.
• College of Southern Idaho. No new cases, down from one the previous week.
• College of Western Idaho. No recent cases.
• Idaho State University. Nine new cases, down from 12.
• Lewis-Clark State College. Two active cases, after no active cases the previous week.
• North Idaho College. One new case.
• Northwest Nazarene University. No cases last week, down from one case the previous week.
• University of Idaho. Three cases, down from five.

(More reading: Check our in-depth coverage of Idaho’s pandemic, two years in.)